Walgreens Building A Superstore That Runs Only On Renewable Energy

The cost of energy isn’t cheap as gas prices and home heating costs rise on a semi-regular basis, and one place that we usually don’t think of as energy-sucking locations is the local 24-hour pharmacy. These places need to run their business at all times of the day in order to get you your pills to help with your upset tummy. But one pharmaceutical chain plans to introduce a store that completely runs on renewable energy.

Walgreens is announcing they have started working on what it’s calling America’s first zero energy superstore. The store will be located in Evanston, Illinois and will have over 800 solar panels, two wind turbines and geothermal energy to provide enough power to the store so it wouldn’t need to draw power from outside power sources.

The store’s renewable energy is estimated to generate 256,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, with the store estimated to use 200,000 kWh. Of course, weather will play a huge role in just how much energy the store can generate. We think it would have made more sense to build their store capable of renewable energy in a place that has abundant sunshine more days than not. A week-long weather event could probably ruin thousands of gallons of milk, making your breakfast cereal a rather dry experience.

Daniel Perez
Categories: Green
Tags: renewable energy, solar panels, wind turbine